RANGERS REBOUND, TIE SERIES
New York coach Gerard Gallant was confident the Rangers would bounce back from a tough loss in the marathon series opener, and they did just that.
Artemi Panarin and Frank Vatrano each had a goal and two assists and the Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins 5-2 in Game 2 on Thursday night to even the best-of-seven first-round series.
Chris Kreider, Andrew Copp and Ryan Strome also scored for New York. Igor Shesterkin made 39 saves two nights after stopping 79 shots in a triple-overtime loss in Game 1.
“It’s an 82-game regular season and we’ve done it all regular season long,” Gallant said. “We’ve got a talented hockey club and when we want to play real good hockey, sound hockey we’re a good team.”
Sidney Crosby had a goal and an assist, and Jake Guentzel also scored for the Penguins. Louis Domingue, getting the start after replacing the injured Casey DeSmith in the second overtime of Game 1, finished with 34 saves.
“It’s a hard-fought game, we can take a lot of positives,“Pittsburgh coach Mike Sullivan said. “When we were in our end zone I thought we defended hard. We had some looks in the offensive zone. One area we need to improve and get better is special teams, on both sides.”
Game 3 is Saturday night in Pittsburgh.
With the Rangers leading 3-2 after 40 minutes, the Penguins came out strong in the third period with the first nine shots on goal. Shesterkin stopped them all.
Panarin then extended the lead to 4-2 when his centering pass from beyond the goal line deflected off Penguins defenseman Mike Matheson and past Domingue at 8:02.
“It was for (Jacob) Trouba, I was trying to get the pass to him,” Panarin said through a translator. “It hit the skate of the opposing player.”
Vatrano gave the Rangers a threegoal lead when he got around Matheson in the right circle, skated in and beat Domingue inside the right post at 9:49.
“Definitely a good showing today, a good first step in the right direction,” Panarin said.
Shesterkin was down on the ice for several minutes following a collision with Pittsburgh’s Jeff Carter as the goalie was trying to get back in position from behind the net with about two minutes left.
Panthers 5, Capitals 1: Aleksander Barkov and Carter Verhaeghe each had a goal and an assist and host Florida beat Washington to even the Eastern Conference first-round series at a game apiece.
Aaron Ekblad, Anton Lundell and Mason Marchment also scored for Florida,
the top overall seed. Sergei Bobrovsky stopped 26 shots.
The series shifts to Washington, with Game 3 on Saturday and Game 4 on Monday night.
Stars 2, Flames 0: Joe Pavelski and Michael Raffi scored and Dallas goalie Jake Oettinger stopped 24 shots as the visiting Stars evened the series at a game apiece.
Avalanche 2, Predators 1 (OT): Cale Makar scored 8:31 into overtime to give host Colorado a 2-0 series lead.
Wednesday’s late games
Wild 6, Blues 2: Kirill Kaprizov had a hat trick, Joel Eriksson Ek scored twice and host Minnesota beat St. Louis to tie the series 1-1.
Oilers 6, Kings 0: Host Edmonton scored three times in the second period and coasted from there to tie the series 1-1. Evander Kane scored twice in the third period.